DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 08/18/06

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 TOKYO 004751

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR E, P, EB, EAP/J, EAP/P, EAP/PD, PA
WHITE HOUSE/NSC/NEC; JUSTICE FOR STU CHEMTOB IN ANTI-TRUST DIVISION;
TREASURY/OASIA/IMI/JAPAN; DEPT PASS USTR/PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE;
SECDEF FOR JCS-J-5/JAPAN,
DASD/ISA/EAPR/JAPAN; DEPT PASS ELECTRONICALLY TO USDA
FAS/ITP FOR SCHROETER; PACOM HONOLULU FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVISOR;
CINCPAC FLT/PA/ COMNAVFORJAPAN/PA.

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TAGS: OIIP KMDR KPAO PGOV PINR ECON ELAB JA
SUBJECT: DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 08/18/06


INDEX:

(1) Ozawa's criticism of Prime Minister Koizumi Wavering; "Yasukuni
visit by the prime minister is only natural," Ozawa once said

(2) With one cabinet minister after another leaving for remote
countries, uncertainty looms over relations with neighbors

(3) Seizure of Japanese fishing boat by Russia: Median line in
northern waters; one of the best fishing grounds; Fishermen in
Nemuro have consciousness that it is their sea

(4) Government decides to shut out crime syndicates, subcontractors
from public works projects, including materials

ARTICLES:

(1) Ozawa's criticism of Prime Minister Koizumi Wavering; "Yasukuni
visit by the prime minister is only natural," Ozawa once said

SANKEI (Page 5) (Full)
August 18, 2006

Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) President Ichiro Ozawa has kept
silent since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Yasukuni
Shrine on Aug. 15. But in his column carried by the Yukan Fuji
(evening sports newspaper),he severely criticized Koizumi's visit
to the Shinto shrine: "He visited the shrine as a performance. He
should instead by laying the ground work so that the Emperor would
be able to visit there, too." He once supported the prime minister's
Yasukuni visits, noting, "There are no reasons for the prime
minister to hesitate."

On the 15 when Koizumi went to Yasukuni, only Secretary General
Yukio Hatoyama responded with an interview. Executive Office chief
Goshi Hosono, Ozawa's aide, stated: "Prime Minister Koizumi will
soon resign. There is no need for the party head to make a comment.
We want him to do his best for preparations for the party leadership
race."

In his column in the evening newspaper yesterday, however, Ozawa
blasted Koizumi, as follows:

"The prime minister recognizes that war as a wrong, and he has said
that Class-A war criminals were responsible for waging the war and
that they had committed crimes. Yasukuni Shrine honors Class-A war
criminals, yet he visited there. This means that the prime minister,
who represents Japan, made an action that can not be acceptable
domestically or internationally."

After assuming the presidency of the main opposition party, Ozawa
pushed the argument that the names of Class-A war criminals should
be deleted from the list of names of those enshrined at Yasukuni
Shrine. His reason was that the leaders of the time bear grave
responsibility to the Japanese people for leading them into war and
that they should not have enshrined because they did not die in the
war.

On April 2, 1986, when he was serving as home affairs minister,
Ozawa replied to a question by then Japan Socialist Party member
Sango Sato at the Upper House Local Administration Committee as
follows:


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"Paying our respects at Yasukuni Shrine means to honor those who
died in the war for the country. Whether they were Class-A war
criminals, Class-B, or Class-C is not a question," he then added,
"We should think separately the issue of war responsibility and our
feelings."

On April 25, 2001, the day before the Koizumi government was
inaugurated, Ozawa as head of then Liberal Party, made a statement
supporting the prime minister's visit to Yasukuni Shrine, saying,
"It is only natural that we thank for those who died in the
frontline of the war. We should accept it meekly."

On June 9, 2005, when he was Minshuto vice president, Ozawa stated:
"If the prime minister insists that visiting Yasukuni is his
political belief, he should visit there on Aug. 15, the anniversary
of the end of the war." He gave Koizumi a "seal of approval" even
though his aim was to seek to check Koizumi.

If one looks at Ozawa's remarks until now, what he said are totally
different from one he made in 1986. A secretary to a veteran LDP
lawmaker commented: "Mr. Ozawa is just criticizing for the sake of
criticizing." It is the fact that the political situation over
Yasukuni visits by the prime minister and Ozawa's position are
greatly changed. As if to keep his words and actions in the past in
mind, Ozawa said in his column yesterday: "A visit to Yasukuni by
the persons who are responsible posts in the government is on a
different level (from a visit to the shrine by other people)."

(2) With one cabinet minister after another leaving for remote
countries, uncertainty looms over relations with neighbors

TOKYO SHIMBUN (Page 2) (Slightly abridged)
August 18, 2006

A number of members in the Koizumi cabinet have left or will be
leaving for countries that have yet received no Japanese cabinet
ministers. This is the first such attempt in a bid to strengthen
Japan's diplomatic foundations. Conversely, however, it could be
dangerous to overlook nearby countries, as seen from the incident of
a Japanese fishing boat shot in waters off Nemuro, Hokkaido.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi came up with this strategic
approach. During the Golden Week holidays this year, he became the
first sitting prime minister to visit three countries in Africa and
Scandinavia, including Ghana. On that occasion, the prime minister,
impressed by their warm welcomes, felt the need for Japan to develop
"diplomacy with a face," according to his aides.

Koizumi urged cabinet ministers to separately go to countries that
have never received a Japanese premier or cabinet minister.

It is common for each government agency to determine where its head
will go overseas. In the selection process, priority is given to
countries that have close ties with Japan, like the United States
and China, or to those involved in important issues. Low-profile
countries tend to be put on the backburner. Of the 192 UN member
states, as of this May, there were 82 countries that have received
no prime minister or cabinet ministers from Japan.

In response to an order from Koizumi, the Kantei took the lead in
scheduling cabinet members' overseas trips. The office arranged
plans for nine cabinet ministers to visit 16 countries, including
those in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. Their mission is to

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deliver the prime minister's personal letter and convey Japan's
economic assistance plans. They were given opportunities to explain
Japan's bid for a permanent seat on UN Security Council or Japan's
position on the North Korea issue, achieving acceptable results.

While Japan is engaged in this diplomatic approach to remote
countries, strained relations with its neighbors have been brought
to the forefront. On Aug. 16, Russian Border Patrol officers fired
on a Japanese boat in waters near Kaigarjima, part of the disputed
Northern Territories. In this incident, one crewmember was killed.
Foreign Minister Taro Aso lodged a strong protest with the Russian
government, casting dark clouds over relations between Japan and
Russia. It is also true that the standstill Northern Territories
issue was behind the incident.

A Taiwanese anti-Japanese group set sail for the Senkaku Islands
(called the Diaoyutai Islands in Chinese) by fishing boat yesterday
in a move to protest the prime minister's visit to Yasukuni Shrine
on Aug. 15. On sovereignty over the islets, Japan and China have
been at loggerheads.

Japan also has a disagreement with South Korea in connection with
marine surveys in waters near the Takeshima islets (Dokdo in South
Korea),over which both countries claim sovereignty.

The prime minister has given priority to strengthening Japan-US
relations, saying that deeper relations between Japan and the US
will mean better relations between Japan and its Asian neighbors,
giving short shrift to diplomacy in the region. This stance
unavoidably has come at a high price and has kept such relations
icy.

(3) Seizure of Japanese fishing boat by Russia: Median line in
northern waters; one of the best fishing grounds; Fishermen in
Nemuro have consciousness that it is their sea

YOMIURI (Page 3) (Excerpts)
August 18, 2006

Japan claims the Northern Territories as its own. However, in
reality the former USSR and Russia have effectively controlled the
four islands since the end of the war. Each country claims a
different borderline. In fact, there were a series of firings at
Japanese fishing boats years ago by then USSR Coast Guard patrol
vessels. As a result, a line different from the one Japan had
claimed had to be drawn. This is the so-called median line.

At present, only fishing boats with written permission from Russia
under the Japan-Russia Fishing Agreement can fish in waters claimed
by Russia beyond the median line. These fishing boats are allowed to
fish for octopus, hokke (flounder-like fish),and pollack. There is
also an operation agreement on kelp. The Hokkaido Fisheries
Association pays cooperation money to Russia each year so that
Japanese fishermen can catch or gather those products in limited
areas in a specified period.

In any case, Japanese fishing boats are not allowed to catch king
crabs, which the fishing boat seized by Russia was reportedly
catching. If Russia's claim is true, the fishing boat in question
was operating in violation of the agreement.

The history of the median line goes back to 1952, when Hokkaido and
the Japan Coast Guard designated a presumed danger zone as an area

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to which the USSR's Coast Guard's capability reaches. This is said
to be the initial (median) line.

In order to avoid such danger as seizures or shootings, fisheries
cooperative associations along the coast line and Hokkaido in 1996
designated an self-restraint operation line, by setting a buffering
waters area on the Hokkaido's side several kilometers beyond the
median line. Nevertheless line-crossing fishing operations did not
decrease. Hokkaido, therefore, designated operating waters on the
Hokkaido's side of the voluntary restraint line and made the
voluntary restraint line a regulated coordination line (partly
revised in 2002).

After the collapse of the USSR, the Hokkaido Fisheries and Forestry
Department held sea-based talks several times a year with the Russia
Coast Guard near the median line and discussed the issue of fishing
near the Nemuro Strait. However, the issue was not settled
fundamentally. Contradiction in claims by the two countries over the
territorial issue has apparently been exposed in the incident this
time.

(4) Government decides to shut out crime syndicates, subcontractors
from public works projects, including materials

YOMIURI (Top Play) (Full)
August 18, 2006

The government has decided to shut out crime syndicates and
companies affiliated with them from all public works projects so
that state money will not become sources of funding for them. There
is already a regulation to exclude crime syndicates when the
government places original contracts for public projects. The plan
is also to establish a regulation to shut them out from subcontracts
and sub-subcontracts. Organized crime groups will also be barred
from contracts for supplying construction materials and providing
such services as cleaning. Government agencies concerned have
already started discussions on the issue. Specific measures, such as
a regulation to eliminate crime syndicates, will be mapped out
possibly before the end of the year.

Following the enforcement of the Anti-Organized Crime Law in 1992,
fund-raising activities unique to crime syndicates, such as the
collection of protection money and nominal contributions, have been
contained to some extent. However, the number of crime syndicate
members (including semi-members) stood at 86,300 as of the end of
2005, showing little decline from 90,600 as of the end of 1992. The
National Police Agency (NPA) believes that crime syndicates are
maintaining their force by shifting the weight of their activities
to a method of shrewdly obtaining contracts for public works as
subcontractors or sub-subcontractors.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has already
issued a circular concerning regulations to shut out crime
syndicates and companies related to them from contracts for public
projects. However, since there is no regulation to directly bar
crime syndicates from subcontracts or sub-subcontracts for public
projects, the government will issue a notice on a ban on such
practices or include it in guidelines.

As specific measures to shut out underworld gangs from public
projects, the government is considering: (1) introducing a system of
informing project sponsors of any undue demand for participation in
the project as a sub-contractor from a crime syndicate or a related

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company; and (2) excluding a prime contractor from a list of
designated companies if it is found to have connections or business
transactions with crime syndicates. Some local governments have
already introduced a similar system ahead of the state. The
government is also looking into the possibility of eliminating
underworld gangs and companies related to them from contracts for
projects funded by public money in the future.

There are increasing cases in which crime syndicates disguise
themselves as unrelated companies by using related companies,
relatives, and acquaintances. In order to deal with this situation,
the NPA will provide information to determine whether a person who
made an undue demand is connected with a crime syndicate or not more
actively than before. It will also further strengthen cooperation
with government agencies and local governments.

SCHIEFFER